by Alexander von Rospatt, Professor of
Buddhist & South Asian Studies, and
Director, Group in Buddhist Studies

C

elebrating Prof. Padmanabh
Jaini's ninetieth birthday and
his pioneering contributions to the study
of Jainism in the western world, a select
group of academics from Europe and the
US congregated on Saturday, October 26,
2013 for a day-long symposium hosted by
the Center of South Asia Studies (and
supported by various other units on campus) to share their work on Jainism. This
group included Prof. Jaini himself, who
in his presentation took the packed audience back to the region of Tulunadu in
Karnataka, where he grew up. Focusing on
the Digambara Jain temple of the village
of Nellikar and its annual chariot procession, he investigated the role of the ritual
officiants and traced their origins, demonstrating that they descend from Vedic
Brahmanas who converted to Jainism.
Staying in Karnataka, Peter Flügel, Chair

Padmanabh S. Jaini is Professor
emeritus of Buddhist Studies and cofounder of the Group in
Buddhist Studies. Prof.
Jaini has pioneered the
study of Jainism in the English speaking world. His
"The Jaina Path of Purification" has brought the study
and knowledge of Jainism
to a broader English speakPadmanabh S. Jaini
ing public, and his numerous further publications—such as his
book "Gender and Salvation: Jaina
Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of
Women" (1991) and his "Collected papers on Jaina Studies" (2000)—have
made him one of the leading scholars
in this field. Even as a nonagenarian
he continues to work and publish at
the forefront of Jain Studies.

DASTANGOI: A VIEW FROM A

NON-URDU SPEAKING ENTHUSIAST

by Pablo Seward
t is certainly telling of the global flow
of cultural knowledge today that UC
Berkeley hosted a revived pre-colonial
Urdu art form from India last week. The
host of the show, Prof. Munis Faruqui, got
things rolling by introducing Mr. Mahmood Farooqui. He not only lauded Mr.
Farooqui for his seminal role in reviving

I

(cont’d from previous page) where we fit in.
The theater establishment has by and large
ignored us. But, we've been quite successful.
We've been getting a lot of shows to do. And
now there are about fourteen or fifteen people
who are actively involved in giving dastangoi performances (each has done between
twenty five to forty shows – which is not a
bad number at all). But that is something
that needs to be expanded. We need a lot
more shows, we need a lot more stories, and
we need a lot more dastangos to nourish the
form in different parts of India.

On the symposium's occasion
7
Professor Jaini was honored with the
of the Centre for Jaina Studies at SOAS,
University of London, likewise examined
temple rituals and priests. For this he
turned to the famous Padmavati shrine
by the
in the village of Humcha and the rituals
Jains performs there with the assistance
of
(and under the control) of the temple
in
priests, including rites of prognostication.
in
Moving from Karnataka north, John Cort
recognition
of
his
visionary
leadership,
of Denison University focused upon the
exemplary commitment, & tireless
largely unexplored presence of Digambara
efforts in teaching Jainism to the
communities in Gujarat, surveying their
North American community
current spread and history. The engagement with the
social dimension
of Jainism was
rounded off by UC
Berkeley's Alexander von Rospatt,
the convener of the
symposium, who
expanded upon
Prof. Jaini's examination (1980) of
why Jainism did
From left: Peter Flügel, Kristi Wiley, Alexander von Rospatt, Shobha Vora, Ashok Domadia, Olle
not share the fate
Qvarnström, Padmanabh Jaini, Shashi Jaini, Phyllis Granoff, Sunita Bajracharya, Paul Dundas,
of Buddhism in InTara Sethia, Shalin Jain, Nirmal Sethia, & John Cort
dia and vanish, by
probing into the social factors that allowed
brought Jain and Buddhist doxographical
Mahayana Buddhism in Nepal uniquely to
texts, and notably the works of the Jain
persist to the present.
Haribhadra Suri and the Buddhist BhaThe other presentations of this carevaviveka, into conversation by contrasting
fully balanced symposium were grounded
their respective critique of the Samkhya
in the study of literary sources. Phyllis
model of cognition. Kristi Wiley, who
Granoff of Yale University dealt with the
earned her PhD at Berkeley under Prof.
17th century debate on the treatment of
Jaini's supervision, dealt with the crudest
Jain images and how they encode the life
form of life known in Jainism, the onestory of the Jina without visually referencsensed nigodas, and the doctrinal questions
ing particular episodes. Paul Dundas of
(and dilemmas) their postulation poses.
the University of Edinburgh probed into
The symposium with its rich research
the contribution of Jain authors to the
papers by leading scholars of Jainism
development of allegory in Indian literary
captured something of the strength and
history, focusing on the celebrated monk
breadth that characterizes the study of
Hemacandra Maladharin. Robert GoldJainism today and that is owed in no small
man, who has been Prof. Jaini's colleague
measure to Prof. Jaini's immense contribuat Berkeley for the past four decades,
tions to that field. Thus the conference
treated the highly charged and ambivalent
was a fitting tribute to his achievements as
appropriations by Jain authors of promia Jain scholar, which are matched by his
nent figures from the early Sanskrit canon.
equally significant accomplishments as a
Finally, two papers engaged with particular
scholar of Indian Buddhism.
aspects of Jainism's complex doctrinal hisVideos of papers presented at
tory. Olle Qvarnström of Lund University
southasia.berkeley.edu/study-jainism

dastangoi, but also for his other skills as a
writer, an actor, and a director. Although
Mr. Farooqui initially spoke in English,
he quickly switched into Urdu. As a
non-Urdu speaker, I initially was quite
anxious that I would lose interest in the
performance because it was unintelligible
to me. Remarkably, however, my fears
were quickly allayed. Mr Farooqui's resonating and high-paced voice kept my attention throughout the 50 minute show.
This is quite remarkable considering the
scaled back nature of the props, lighting,
and clothing. And yet Mr. Farooqui managed to fuel my imagination. The references Mr. Farooqui so passionately made
passionately made on stage I could only
detect through the non-linguistic dimensions of his show, and correspondent
reactions by part of the audience who
understood Urdu. What kind of art does
this kind of liminal space in postcolonial
encounters enable? Is it possible for the
artist and the audience to share the form
but not the content of the art that is being performed; for the artist to imagine

one thing and the audience another, and
for an aesthetic co-experience to still occur? I returned home and researched dastangoi. Dastangos used to engage their audiences in street corners, and for several
days; they used nothing other than their
voice to tell their stories; their stories
often consisted of fights against sorcerers, and always involved a suspension of
disbelief; dastans were only written once
they began to be lost; and they are secular. With this research in mind, the potential of dastangoi not as a renewed art
but as an art in its own right in modernity
became clear in my mind. For though
it may not take place in street corners
any longer and must comply with tight
schedules, Dastangoi as I experienced it
is not something that could be written
down; and it is something that suspended
disbelief (in my case, with respect to understanding an Urdu art form), and that
was a secular yet uncanny experience."
Pablo Seward, CSAS' Marketing & Communications Intern, is a Cal undergrad
majoring in Anthropology & Psychology